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The aim of this paper is to describe the reality of local authority legislation in Yemen, underline its strengths and weaknesses, identify the main obstacles to its implementation, and present suggestions for improving it. To attain these objectives, an integrated approach was followed based on the review and analysis of existing literature and official documents, as well as one-on-one interviews with a number of public administration leaders at central and local levels.

• Year2018
• Author(s)Ahmed Mohamed Al-Mawari

This paper on the local governance experiment in Yemen seeks to review its past developmental stages and current reality. It includes governorates still under the war’s impact, as well as and those no longer affected by war, but still facing major challenges to reinforcing stability.

• Year2018
• Author(s)Badr Basalmah

Governance systems differ from one state to another depending on the politics in each state, its social, economic and cultural development, and other historical factors. Symmetry in the form and content of relations between local governance units, or between units and central authority, is rare. Local governance embodies decentralization, and is essentially a system that allows citizens to run their own local affairs. It should therefore be based on a set of principles and objectives as preconditions for applying decentralization and the goals for local governance set by the state and local communities.

• Year2018
• Author(s)Abdul-Raqib Fatih

This paper, by an academic and political activist in Sana'a, will shed light on the resources available to local authorities in the Republic of Yemen, highlight the constraints on revenue collection, and propose how to address them and develop Yemeni local authority revenue streams.

This paper relies on a number of references – listed at the bottom – as well as various meetings with academics, researchers and specialists to enrich the ideas it discusses.

• Year2018
• Author(s)Anonymous

Diaspora organisations (DOs) are newly recognised actors in the humanitarian space. DOs respond to crises such as those in Syria, Somalia, and Nigeria, which have shown the limitations of the traditional humanitarian sector. Their contributions to emergency response are under-studied and, as our research shows, often misunderstood due to a gap in knowledge about their work.

• Year2018

This exploration decidedly disengages from the prevalent discourses on youth, which are already quite well-covered in literature: ‘they are both troublemakers and peacemakers’ or ‘they are a special and potent category of peace agents, and therefore need to be empowered’. Rather, the focus of this exploration is on existing stories of dialogic and mediative efforts in the youth space, in an attempt to bring to light some insights usually left in the dark, and to stimulate a discourse hitherto absent. This is deemed particularly timely, given the inception of a myriad of initiatives since the adoption of Resolution 2250.

• Year2018
• Author(s)Mir Mubashir, Irena Grizelj

Depuis de nombreuses années, la problématique du dialogue national se trouve au cœur des débats socio-politiques au Mali. En effet, la crise profonde qui a été révélée par les événements du 21 mars 2012 a ébranlé le tissu social et le vivre ensemble et fragilisé l’Etat et ses institutions. Le dialogue national est alors réapparu comme une nécessité absolue afin de permettre à tous les enfants de la nation de se retrouver et se concerter sur le nouveau contrat social qui doit lier les maliennes et les maliens. Pour sortir de la crise actuelle, l’Accord pour la paix et la réconciliation issu du processus d’Alger, signé le 15 mai et le 20 juin 2015 à Bamako a proposé l’ouverture d’une série d’espaces et d’initiatives de dialogue dont la tenue d’une Conférence d’Entente Nationale (CEN).

Cette étude présente une analyse systématique centrée sur les résultats de la CEN de mars 2017.

• Year2018
• Author(s)Ousmane Sy, Ambroise Dakouo, Kadari Traoré

Dealing with violent extremism (VE) has emerged as a central framework of analysis and policy-making in most Western and non-Western government agencies. It is also heavily shaping the programming of non-governmental agencies, not least due to the availability of related funding lines.

While there is an undeniable need to address violent extremism, this latest Berghof Handbook Dialogue takes as one premise that more often than not, analysis and programming to date often fall short in understanding and tackling the root causes of the phenomenon. Our lead article proposes: "Ultimately, addressing VE is fundamentally about conflict transformation, yet CVE/PVE interventions are rarely designed to be transformative."

• Year2018

This interview with Rudine Jakupi, Garentina Kraja, Rrona Kamberi, Redion Qirjazi, Sefer Selimi, Romario Shehu, Sead Turcalo and Nejra Veljan is an edited conversation with a team of researchers from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Macedonia who are researching issues of radicalisation, violent extremism and prevention in the region and their respective countries. The interview was recorded in Sarajevo on 27 March 2018 and edited for brevity and clarity. Berghof Foundation works with the researchers interviewed here in the context of the participatory research project "Opportunities for Preventing Violent Extremism (PVE) in the Western Balkans".

• Year2018

In this reflection on the responses to my lead article in the Dialogue issue at hand, I want to highlight two principles which need to be kept in mind when shaping CVE and PVE initiatives, because these principles can enhance our capacity to design more realistic and conflict-sensitive interreligious peacebuilding initiatives. First, religious actors cannot be responsible for curing the phenomena of violent extremism (VE), simply because they are the not the only agencies that contribute to the emergence, dynamics or results of violent extremists’ campaigns. Second, there are many other agencies of social and political change that operate in any given context where violent extremism manifests itself – and it is only in engaging together that these agencies can hope to find effective transformative approaches to violent extremism.

• Year2018
• Author(s)Mohammed Abu-Nimer